Zephyr IDE for VS Code

The Zephyr IDE for VS Code extension provides tools to assist in your Zephyr project development workflow. This extension helps you build Zephyr projects and share them with your team.

An extension pack is available that bundles in additional tools.

You can read a little bit more about the motivation behind the project here.

Features

• Installs host tools required for Zephyr development
• Sets up west environment
• Installs Zephyr SDK using West SDK commands
• Provides west.yml templates or use your own
• Able to use externally managed environments via ZEPHYR_BASE environment variable
• Add projects from scratch or from templates
• Multiple projects per workspace
• Multiple builds per project
• Per project KConfig and overlay files
• Per build board, KConfig, overlay files, and runner configuration
• Bind builds to launch/debug configurations
• Project tree GUI panel and active project panel
• Automatic active project selection based on active file in editor
• All GUI commands available in command palette
• Functions to set up custom launch/debug configurations
• West terminal for manual west commands
• Saves/loads project structure to workspace in human readable and editable file
• Cross-platform support for all Zephyr-supported platforms
• Twister testing support

Externally Managed Environments

Zephyr IDE automatically detects and works with externally managed Zephyr environments:

• Automatic detection via ZEPHYR_BASE environment variable
• No setup required when using Docker, DevContainers, or pre-configured environments
• Feature support including build, flash, and debug operations
• Configurable warning: Option to suppress environment variable warnings via zephyr-ide.suppress-workspace-warning setting

Suitable for:

• Docker/container workflows
• CI/CD pipelines
• Shared development environments
• Pre-installed Zephyr setups

See the externally managed environments section in the User Manual for detailed information.

Getting Started

The User Manual is available online, or you can read it locally at docs/MANUAL.md.

You can also watch our video tutorials:

You can have a look at this sample directory to also help with getting started and sharing project.

Requirements

This extension can automatically install host tools required for Zephyr development on supported platforms. The automated installation follows the methods described in the Zephyr Getting Started Guide and installs tools such as cmake, python3, and devicetree compiler.

For installation on unsupported platforms, install the required packages from the getting started guide using your platform's package manager and consider making an issue or pull request for that specific platform at the zephyr-ide repository.

Testing

This extension includes integration tests that validate the Zephyr IDE workflow. For more details, see docs/TESTING.md.

Known Issues

• Dev containers with WSL and Windows folders: When using dev containers in a WSL environment, ensure your workspace folder is located within the Ubuntu file system (e.g., /home/username/project) rather than in mounted Windows directories (e.g., /mnt/c/Users/...). This is an issue inherent with the west boards command.

Release Notes

See CHANGELOG for release notes

Development and Debugging

See the Zephyr IDE for VS Code Developer's Guide for development and debugging instructions.